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Black holes are some of the most incredible objects in the Universe. There are places where so much mass has gathered in such a tiny volume that the individual matter particles cannot remain as they normally are, and instead collapse down to a singularity. Surrounding this singularity is a sphere-like region known as the event horizon, from inside which nothing can escape, even if it moves at the Universe's maximum speed: the speed of light.
While we know three separate ways to form black holes, and have discovered evidence for thousands of them, we've never imaged one directly. Despite all that we've discovered, we've never seen a black hole's event horizon, or even confirmed that they truly had one. Next year, that's all about to change, as the first results from the Event Horizon Telescope will be revealed, answering one of the longest-standing questions in astrophysics.
The idea of a black hole is nothing new, as scientists have realized for centuries that as you gather more mass into a given volume, you have to move at faster and faster speeds to escape from the gravitational well that it creates. Since there's a maximum speed that any signal can travel at — the speed of light — you'll reach a point where anything from inside that region is trapped.
The matter inside will try to support itself against gravitational collapse, but any force-carrying particles it attempts to emit get bent towards the central singularity; there is no way to exert an outward push. As a result, a singularity is inevitable, surrounded by an event horizon. Anything that falls into the event horizon? Also trapped; from inside the event horizon, all paths lead towards the central singularity.
Read more here. (Forbes)
While we know three separate ways to form black holes, and have discovered evidence for thousands of them, we've never imaged one directly. Despite all that we've discovered, we've never seen a black hole's event horizon, or even confirmed that they truly had one. Next year, that's all about to change, as the first results from the Event Horizon Telescope will be revealed, answering one of the longest-standing questions in astrophysics.
The idea of a black hole is nothing new, as scientists have realized for centuries that as you gather more mass into a given volume, you have to move at faster and faster speeds to escape from the gravitational well that it creates. Since there's a maximum speed that any signal can travel at — the speed of light — you'll reach a point where anything from inside that region is trapped.
The matter inside will try to support itself against gravitational collapse, but any force-carrying particles it attempts to emit get bent towards the central singularity; there is no way to exert an outward push. As a result, a singularity is inevitable, surrounded by an event horizon. Anything that falls into the event horizon? Also trapped; from inside the event horizon, all paths lead towards the central singularity.
Read more here. (Forbes)
